Amazingly mature commentary

[tabatha]

Dissent is our patriotic duty (COLUMN)

.....

One of my heroes this year is Remgro chairman Johann Rupert. At the beginning of the year, Rupert came out in defence of the right of First National Bank to launch a campaign to highlight the terrible extent to which crime grips our country.

“To speak up about things that are patently wrong in a society is not disloyal — it is the moral right and duty of any citizen. It can be called ‘loyal dissent’,” he wrote in a letter to Business Leadership SA, an organisation that behaved abominably throughout the debacle.

In South Africa today, this statement should be put up in every household and every school. If we all read and understood that statement, we would all be better able to help build a better country.

Ten months after Rupert ticked off his fellow business leaders, world-renowned musician Lucky Dube lay dead after what is suspected to have been a botched hijacking on Thursday.

.....

Mbeki has failed terribly on crime. That is why Rupert was right to call for “loyal dissent” on crime. When the president of the country keeps a man accused of racketeering and consorting with gang lords as head of the police, it is time to criticise that president.

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=592367